SUN HERALD (Biloxi, Mississippi) 24 September 06 Man turns from frog hunter to frog fancier - 1,200 live in 6 backyard ponds (Amanda McElfresh)
Duson, La. (AP): From the front, Dozier Lester's home looks like most others in South Louisiana. But take a few steps into his back yard, and you'll see where the 77-year-old spends most of his time - his six frog ponds, filled with more than 1,200 live bullfrogs.
Protected by a tin roof, wire screens and weathered wooden panels, the frogs are shyer than one might expect. On a recent afternoon, the amphibians were piled up in one corner of their pond, quietly hopping away from Lester's broom and water hose as he cleaned their living areas.
"You take care of them like you do any other animal - feed 'em and clean up behind 'em," Lester said. "They're amphibians, so for that reason, you have to give them dry land and a water area, but other than that, they're like any other animal."
Lester said even as a child growing up in northwest Mississippi, frogs were a part of his life.
"We used to go frog hunting on the bayou," he said. "It was just part of our life. It was just something we went out and did for fun."
Lester said he began raising frogs in 1973, when he decided to start feeding the animals discarded crawfish heads.
Before he knew it, the practice had grown to include dozens, then hundreds of the creatures.
"I didn't really intend to do it," he said. "It was something that just sort of happened."
Nowadays, Lester's yard boasts a variety of the hopping creatures. Some are brown. Some are green. Some have spots.
Lester said the largest frog is about seven inches long, and the smallest are the dozens of tadpoles housed in the three swimming pools he uses for breeding.
"When they're ready to move out of here, they jump into this white tube, and then they go into the bucket underneath," Lester explained as he demonstrated the tadpoles' graduation from the swimming pool to the frog pond. "I've got about five of them in the bucket today. Sometimes I have just a few, sometimes I have dozens. It just depends."
Despite having to use a chain to pull himself into and out of the ponds each day, Lester said he has no intention to retire from raising frogs.
"I haven't planned on that yet," he said.
Man turns from frog hunter to frog fancier